1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to consumer data collection, and more particularly to profiling and analysis of consumer response during consumption of an “electronic consumable” product.
2. Description of Related Art
Businesses collect information on consumer activities in order to tailor products to consumer tastes. Often, providers of services or products collect and store data and statistics on the type of services mostly used and requested by users, in order to improve the quality of services and attract more users. Collected information can include, for example, popular authors, frequently viewed titles, etc.
However, the data collected is often not true or does not reflect the correct information about the user's behavior or use of the services. This can result in a business stocking items not as popular as thought, or stocking items beyond actual demand. The data currently collected may not accurately account for cases where, for example, a book is checked out but is never read, or a book is checked out and only the first chapter is read before the reader loses interest. In such cases, a service or product provider may mistakenly conclude that the item checked out was of interest to the user, when in reality, it was not.
In today's competitive eBusiness environment, accuracy of data collected is a matter of necessity and survival in the marketplace. Businesses make hefty investment in collecting accurate data to improve on their Return on Investment (ROI).
Therefore, the state of the art would be improved by the addition of a mechanism to collect data as accurately as possible, one which collects information that is truly representative of the user's behavior, likes, dislikes, and preferences, to thereby enable service and product providers to make appropriate decisions and planning.